Apologies in advance for posting this twice (also under wiring regs)

But my simple question is, why is the invaluable discussion forum buried so obscurely from the home page

how do you navigate to from the home page

i write in 'forum' into the site search engine and it really ***** me off.

SORT IT OUT ADMIN!!!!!!!!!!!!11

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Sean Elder
London

It is not an easy task to alow everyone to get what they want from the website in the fastest possible manner.

Discussion forum is listed on the home page but some may not be able to find it.

I am at a loss deciding where to place it among the categories of major topics.

May be someone can suggest a prominent space to display it.

Generally if someone uses any browser to search for some technical problems IET discussion forum will be displayed.

Regards
Chris Chew

Brian

If you look on the home page under "quick finder" (in the right hand column) you'll find a link to the discussion forums.

Keith

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Keith Parr
Council 2006-10
Consultants' Professional Network - 2009
Benelux LN - 2009
http://keithparr.tel/

Well thats strange, Im sure it wasnt there yesterday, and if it was that easy (and the logical place for it) then I would have found it straight away.

But never mind, its there now and that solves the problem

IMHO Mr Sean elder could use a lesson in good manners

Edited: 18 April 2009 at 09:57 AM by brianslater

It's been there for a long time, Brian, I can't say exactly how long but at least a year.

In my view, the problem is that there is simply too much on the page, the viewer is overwhelmed and gives up.

There was a similar case for the TPNs which were several clicks away from the front page (if you knew how!) but the team have now put a link under "quick finder" to communities - one click and you're there.

Glad you found it and that it meets the need!!

Keith

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Keith Parr
Council 2006-10
Consultants' Professional Network - 2009
Benelux LN - 2009
http://keithparr.tel/

On the other hand we need to provide a better search facility.

If someone asked for discussion forum in search mode it should be displayed as well.

Regards
Chris Chew

Since when did having a little joke become rude! lighten up mate you don't have to be serious all the time.

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Sean Elder
London

The difficulty with the word forum is that it is so widely used. In particular, in an organisation such as the IET, that frequently works collaboratively with those who share our aims, there are many "forums" in which we participate - hence the range of results that you get if you search for the term.

However, in the results of a search for "forum", we do provide a recommended link. It's currently displayed in the right-hand column, although we are looking at the prominence of that.

It is not clear that the forums would naturally fit in any of the main sections on the main Web site, which is why they are linked from the right-hand column on the home page and also on various other pages to which they are relevant. Of course forum postings are also highlighted in various appropriate places in the Knowledge Network.

Regards

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David Rossall
The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Agree with Brian Slater, I've been cut off from a forum and I've come across this while trying to get back...after going all over the page I searched "forums"
Checkout the really easy forums, people are impatient these days, I feel a lot of difficult websites don't get tested with average users, what seems easy to someone in IT, can be quite confusing to a less computer literate member.
Checkout Radiospares "new" website, thousands of errors and difficult to use, must have cost them money and customers. Some manufacturers want your whole life history just to find a budget price of a component.
Last gripe, don't assume that everyone is familiar with acronyns and trendy terms, e.g. the toolbar above apart from bold, italics and underline I've no idea what these symbols are, and below I've not a clue what "do not parse emoticons" would do if I click on it.
OK now to find the control & instrumentation..

Alan,

The post you quote from was posted in 2009 and the pages you see today look much different. There are actually links to the forum at both the top of the page, under "get involved" and also at the bottom as you say.

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Clive Maude
Honorary Secretary
Mersey and Western Cheshire Network

Your shouldnt have to search for the links to other areas of the site. They should be placed in an obvious place so they can easily be seen

I'll pick this up on the thread that covers Remember Me.

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David Rossall
The Institution of Engineering and Technology